Tucker Carlson was at his devious worst Wednesday as he pretended to play the role of a uniter – in order to demonize those calling out white nationalism. If ever you needed proof that Carlson is the worst sort of race hustler, read on.
Carlson got right to playing the racial victim – in order to smear Stacey Abrams as a racial predator
Carlson’s opening remarks proved he has no interest in racial reconciliation, only racial weaponization, starting with – surprise! – attacking a black woman.
CARLSON: Nobody likes racists. Nobody wants to be called a racist. The left knows that, so they use the word as a cudgel to beat their political opponents into submission and have their way.
They've done this so often and for so many years that over time, the word racist has lost a lot of its power. It's dulled from overuse. The left needs a new attack line, a new way to make you shut up and obey. Now they found one.
Watch former Georgia politician, Stacey Abrams deploy it against White House adviser, Stephen Miller.
Predictably, Carlson could not be bothered to look into why Abrams and others in a later video clip called Miller a white nationalist. Instead, lazy Carlson attacked Abrams for not stating her reasoning in the selectively edited clip he chose.
CARLSON: White nationalism. Let's be literal for a minute. What is that exactly? Abrams didn't say, she didn't have to say. The phrase hits you in the gut, not the head. It evokes images from a nightmare -- detention camps, deportation trains, mass killing -- it's terrifying. You'd rather be called a cannibal than a white nationalist. And of course, that is exactly the point. That's why they say it.
Carlson pretends he’s unfamiliar with white nationalism
Next, Carlson played clips of others in the non-Trump media talking about white nationalism in the Trump administration. Again, lazy Carlson couldn’t be bothered to investigate why they felt that way. He was too busy demonizing them.
CARLSON: Again, you'll notice that none of these dumb people pause even for a second to explain to you what a white nationalist is, you probably still don't know, and honestly, neither do we, and that's because there are so very few of them in this country. There are probably about as many legitimate white nationalists in America as there are Russian spies. You could live your entire life here without running into a white nationalist.
Carlson is almost certainly being deliberately dishonest here, despite his self-righteous (and dishonest) claim at the end of the hour that his show is “the sworn and totally sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.” Putting aside the pomposity and smugness of calling people “dumb” for comments Carlson dismissed off the top of his head without investigation, Carlson almost surely knows he’s very popular with white nationalists. In fact, Storm Front founder Don Black and his wife reportedly watch Carlson’s show twice every night because, according to their son, the parents “feel that [Carlson] is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have and they’re trying to get some tips on how to advance it.”
If Carlson really cared about white nationalism, he’d show some concern that his show is so beloved by its practitioners
Carlson’s only real interest in the subject of white nationalism seemed to lie in how he could use it to paint bigots as the real victims. To that end, Carlson cited Ms. Smugness, herself, Candace Owens, the black woman whose brand is attacking other African Americans over race, You may recall she recently made news praising Hitler. She was also cited as an inspiration by the New Zealand gunman.
Carlson played a clip of Owens insisting, “There isn't a single adult today that in good conscience would make the argument that America is a more racist or a more white nationalist society than it was when my grandfather was growing up, and yet we're hearing these terms sent around today because what they want to say is that brown people need to be scared, which seems to be the narrative that we hear every four years right ahead of a presidential election.”
Carlson used black-attacker Candace Owens to scare viewers into thinking Democrats will destroy the country over race
Carlson didn’t mention Owens’ record of extremism nor how she went to bat for the white supremacists in the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally. Instead, he held her up as a racial truth-teller and proof that Democrats are the dangerous racial demagogues.
CARLSON: Aha, that's the answer. It's election season. The left has nothing to sell, nothing that will make your life better. So instead, they whip up race, hatred and fear. Scared people vote, just telling the other side wants to put them in camps or murder them and they'll show up at the polls and vote for you; however reluctantly.
…
But what's the cost of campaigning like this? Democracies succeed when they're built on the belief that we're all in this together. When they become tests of strength between two groups that hate each other, they fall apart. Attacking people for their race is exactly how you destroy a country. That's what Democrats are doing. They know they're doing it. It's obvious. They just don't care.
Let’s call this what it is, folks. It’s not just a shout out to a white nationalist fan base, nor just dishonest hate mongering. It’s an incitement to violence. Carlson knows what he’s doing and he just doesn’t care.
Watch what would be unacceptable to any decent organization below, from the April 10, 2019 Tucker Carlson Tonight, via Media Matters.
(Transcript excerpts via Fox News)
It isn’t coincidental Trump rallies are overwhelmingly white. Nor is it a coincidence Fox News’ audience is largely white. Looking at Trump mouthpiece Tucker as an example we can see why. He often champions Western European civilization – his audience’s immigrant forefathers’ roots.
I do agree with Tucker on one thing. It is true liberals overuse the word “racist” and it has lost its potency in many contexts. But the counterpoint for conservatives like Tucker is the bar to declare anything “racist” is so high they mostly sweep legitimate examples of it under the rug. Like he’s doing here.
“White nationalism” isn’t a term on the rise to replace “racism”. In an era where Trump’s slogan is “make America great again”, an obvious appeal to nationalism and a time when Caucasian dominance in society was greater than it is today, it’s far more specific and accurate in describing the problem.
Also, technically, Hispanic is not a race but an ethnicity. Since most of Trump’s (and sycophants like Tucker’s) racial fearmongering is targeting immigrants on our southern border “white nationalism” is, again, a more accurate label.